With all that I have read and from the demo I have played, FF12 seems to be the first RPG to really try and integrate MMORPG mechanics into the console RPG. It is really exciting for me, as I love both of them so much. I got to thinking about this today at work and wondered if this will be a trend in the next generation. I think it would be awesome if you could explore and get all the bad ass secret weapons and extra bosses and get to level 99. Then an expansion for the game comes out, and adds like 30% to the world with all new stuff and maybe some extra story stuff. I am sure with the right planning it could fly. They could even raise the level cap from 99 to like 199 or something. Anyone else think that is a cool idea?

Ah, I like the idea of a large game world, but I still like having in-depth awesome story reasons to be in all the different places. As far as getting high level and awesome uber-weapons of mass destruction, those are things that are great for showing off and using amongst peers. In a single-player enviroment, those things have little interest to me.

Didn't .hack try to do that? And we all know how those games turned out...

They claimed to be like MMOs, while in reality being closer to shallow PSO clones. Games like FFXII, KotOR, and Contact are way closer to being like MMOs than any of the .hack games.

Personally, I'm fond of the concept of the world size and the combat (when balanced for offline, not online), but not so much for the expansion thing. But who knows, we'll have to see how PSU handles that, as that's the only story focused RPG that'll get an expansion pack that I know of.

Ya, maybe I am crazy then. Sure, the .hack games kinda sucked, and I am sure we will see a few failures along the way. All this talk of episodic content got me thinking they would try and apply that to the typical RPG format.

just FYI, FFXII is nothing like .hack, though it does share a very large open ended world and impossibly challenging side quests that are reminiscent of FFXI. There are some MMO elements such as item gathering and unbeleivably epic encounters (like fighting Fafnir and King Bahamut). Sadly, there IS mob camping involved due to some of the more outlandish monster hunt quests or epic item/weapon attainment. Read the review when it goes live on ship day and judge for yourselves. The game is not for the casual RPG player, that's for sure. I've sunk over 100 hours into the reviewable and i'm still not done with all the content.

I can tell you that if you loved FFXI, you'll have a screaming orgasm over FFXII. The storyline isn't for girly men or people with limited vocabularies. They poured more love into this game than I've seen in all 20 years of the series. Just be prepared to get your ass kicked. Ruby and Emerald Weapon were pansies compared to some of the baddies in Ivalice.

But episodic console games have had a shaky history too. Look at Shen Mue and El Dorado Gate- episodic adventure/RPG series that suffered due to the demise of the Dreamcast hardware. Or look at Xenosaga. That should've been 6 games, but various constraints only allowed 3.

Basically, episodic console games seem cool, but more often than not, behind the scenes stuff (i.e. development costs, phasing out of old hardware) are a hinderance, while PC's are more modular thus allowing a better platform for episodic content.

We can agree to disagree Haven, but I don't think expansion packs and the whole episodic content is a good thing for console gaming. Cost is prohibitive, you never know the lifespan of the hardware, and console gamers in the US at least want to have the full game all perfect when they plop down the $50 for it; In Japan, yeah, console gamers are more willing to pay for the upgrades and stuff for console games but not US console gamers.

I can tell you that if you loved FFXI, you'll have a screaming orgasm over FFXII.

That makes me wonder, really. What i hated about FFXI really was the fact it took so long to do anything. Even if FFXII is slower paced than other RPGs, it'll still be much, much faster to go through than FFXI, so it'll be interesting to see how I react to it.

Yeah, I have not dubt in my mind the only people who are really hating on FF12 are people who 100% hate MMOs in general. Thats what I have seen so far.

100 hours and still more content? That is why I am happily handing over 59.99 for this gem.

I just had this thought while having a rather boring work day. I loved Valkyre Profile 2, and even though it wasnt designed for it, if it had a 20ish dollar bonus pack, like Dynastay Warriors or something, that offered a few more places to go and such, I would be all over it. VP2 isnt anything like a MMO. I can see the point of comparison with the PC and console hardware. Like I said, it was just a thought.

There's good things and bad things about mmorpgs as well as things that work for a mmorpg that wouldn't work for a single player game. For example putting a huge amount of time into a quest or leveling. In a mmorpg when you earn something you get to keep it for months, years however long you play. On a single player rpg when you beat it what you worked for is gone. So it really depends what elements would be added to a single player game.

I'm pretty heavily against expansions though. I get the impression that if expansions got popular on consoles that developers would hold back things, make us pay twice for something we should only have had to pay once for. This is already done to a small extent with improved rereleases(Which thankfully we usually get the rereleased version in the states the first time), only much worse.

I'm not even fond of expansions for mmorpgs, the $13 you're giving them each month is supposed to be in part for them to add new content. I mean, I may look forward to a new expansion and the $30 isn't a big deal, but I don't like the idea of having to pay for one when I already AM paying them.